Dissemination of Genetic Acquisition/Loss Provides a Variety of Quorum Sensing Regulatory Properties in Pseudoalteromonas.

bstract Quorum sensing (QS) enables single-celled bacteria to communicate with chemical signals in order to synchronize group-level bacterial behavior. are marine bacteria found in versatile environments, of which QS regulation for their habitat adaptation is extremely fragmentary. To distinguish genes required for QS regulation in s, comparative genomics was deployed to define the pan-genomics for twelve isolates and previously-sequenced genomes, of which acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL)-based QS traits were characterized. Additionally, transposon mutagenesis was used to identify the essential QS regulatory genes in the selected isolate. A remarkable feature showed that AHL-based colorization intensity of biosensors induced by most likely correlates with QS regulators genetic heterogeneity within the genus. This is supported by the relative expression levels of two of the main QS regulatory genes ( and ) analyzed in representative isolates. Notably, comprehensive QS regulatory schema and the working model proposed in s seem to phylogenetically include the network architectures derived from , and . Several associated genes were mapped by transposon mutagenesis. Among them, a right origin-binding protein-encoding gene () was functionally identified as a positive QS regulatory gene. This gene lies on a genomic instable region and exists in the aforementioned bioinformatically recruited QS regulatory schema. The obtained data emphasize that the distinctly- and hierarchically-organized mechanisms probably target QS association in s dynamic genomes, thus leading to bacterial ability to accommodate their adaption fitness and survival advantages.